Laurel Nest Yurts

A few weeks ago, we shared that we made some major design changes in our yurts.  In two weeks, we’ll be holding our first yurt building workshop of the year, and making our book available.  We are ready to share all the information we have for building high quality yurts and sewing the covers.

The new ring design comes in 36" for smaller yurts and 48" for larger yurts!

What are the major differences in our new design? And why did we change our design when we have such positive feedback?

Even with such happy customers, we still want to improve our designs and make our yurts the finest available. The best benefit to the new design is a larger ring, and thus larger skylight dome.  The 12′, 15′, and 18′ yurts now have 36″ skylights; and the 20′, 24′, and 30′ yurts all have 48″ skylight domes.  That’s a beautiful view for stargazing nights…

Our new design allows our customers to order their own domes!

Our new ring design accomplishes a few practical things, most importantly it improves the strength of the yurt while at the same time making it easier to build.  This is great news to our Do It Yourself builders, as it is now easier to make your own yurt frame.  The new design allows us to use 2×4s instead of specially ordered 5/4 boards.  This makes the yurts stronger, and easier to build.  Our process and the DIY builders are now simplified, as clear boards are much easier to find in a variety of woods, when purchased in more mainstream sizes.

For more information on building your own yurt, come to a workshop!

Our new rafters are much easier to build, stronger, and just as attractive.  You’ll spend less time on the rafter, and there is still no need to special order any parts.

Our new dome opening kit is much simpler, and does not require any special adjustments to the dome.  This means that customers can order the domes directly from the manufacturer, and can easily install the domes themselves.  Even better, the dome lift kit is more water tight, stronger, and less visible when you look up through skylight dome.

The best news for those of you who are not Do It Yourself builders?  Our old designs will be available at discounted prices, while they last. We have some parts in stock that we will be making into yurt packages, and selling at discount.  Our current project is finishing five 12′ yurts, which we’ll sell as a group, hopefully to a campground, at a discount. These yurts will also be sold individually.  The benefits of a 12′ yurt are numerous, especially these smaller yurts can be built in most places without a building permit (often building codes refer to structures 12′ in diameter and larger… our 12′ yurt is just slightly under 12′ large)….  

Thanks for tuning in, and hopefully we’ll see some of you at our workshop in the next few weeks.

So often people who are interested in a yurt ask the same general questions.  Some of the questions I’ve been hearing lately are: Do you get cold in the winter? How does the yurt do in strong winds? And can you connect the yurts if you build several?

So I thought I’d take a second to let you know about these top questions/ concerns…

Yurtin' in the winter...

First off, do we get cold? The answer is yes, we do get cold when we go outside! But of course, we keep our yurt warm and toasty (and our daughter Emilia walks around barefoot…) We do enjoy spending a good amount of time outside, so we do get cold outdoors….

Our FAQ section provides a lot of information about heating and cooling a yurt, and we’re happy to answer questions, too! http://www.laurelnestyurts.com/category/faq/heating-and-cooling  As you may know, yurts were designed for use in some of the coldest climates on the planet. Their circular nature makes them more efficient to heat (with 12% less surface exposed to the elements than their rectilinear equivalents).  We use a NASA-developed reflective insulation which consists of a layer of bubble wrap sandwiched between two reflective foil layers. The foil works by reflecting radiant heat in both directions (to keep the heat inside in the winter and outside in the summer).  Insulating the floor is important. You can use standard types of insulation under the floor (e.g., blown-in or rigid foam) or use stress skin insulated (SIP) panels to build the deck itself.

Now for the second concern: how do yurts do in the strong winds? This answer is simply answered that one of the benefits to yurts is how well they do in the wind! Yurts are ideal in high winds, partly because they are circular (and therefore the wind goes around the yurt, with no corners to catch the wind). Also, the yurts amazing design gives it strength and flexibility because of the integrated roof and wall structure (the whole structure being held in tension between the central compression ring and the encircling tension band).

Becky Kemery's book is a great source on yurts.

Becky Kemery, author of “Yurts, Living in the Round” relates this story: “I heard a story about a fabric yurt in Japan surviving a tornado in Japan that damaged nearby houses. The only thing that happened to the yurt was that the skylight bubble blew off, which I’m told is a design feature to allow for pressure release when a vacuum is created inside, thereby keeping the yurt from imploding.”  Amazing, and makes me happy that I live in a yurt in WNC, where we experience lots of high winds!

The last question we hear from families often, who want to build several yurts that connect, creating a “family compound”.  How do you join these yurts? There are many options, from simplest to most luxurious.  We connected our yurt with our daughter’s by building a connecting deck. This is convenient and increases our space so much! To protect us from the elements, we could build an awning to enclose the deck, or even make it into a screened in porch. A covered walkway, breezeway or enclosed hallway is another popular choice.

Yurts can be as simple or luxurious as you want...

Yurt living is in many ways comparable to any other lifestyle.  It can be as simple or luxurious as you want.  Your yurt can be set up on the ground, used as a nomadic space you move every few weeks or months, or it can be set up on a deck with radiant floors and several real windows and doors… Whatever lifestyle you choose, you can pick and choose your luxuries.  One of our customers owns a small piece of land, has goats and is almost entirely off grid, with one of the most stellar shoe collections I’ve seen… so live it up, live, love, yurt!

Over the last year we’ve seen a rising need for bamboo yurts.  We’ve done some research on curing and treating bamboo, and have a goal of creating a bamboo yurt on our land.  We recently got a bunch of bamboo for free off Craigslist and are starting to treat it and prepare it for some building projects.

Why bamboo yurts? Our goal is humanitarian aid as well as sustainability.  In many places where there is no access to lumber, bamboo can be found in abundance. You can harvest, cut, treat and build with a very small tool kit.

Bamboo Yurts, Australia

Some basic tips: harvest the bamboo during a dry season and then cure it.  The reason you do this is that you don’t want the bamboo to mold.  There’s lots of ways to cure or dry it, and it really depends how much time you have.  If you’re in a big hurry, you can get a torch and heat it until the color changes.  This makes a lovely smell and is a pleasant task.  For other curing ideas, check out http://www.ehow.com/how_4812295_cure-bamboo.html

Bamboo yurt walls using more of a dome design

As far as design ideas, we’re thinking of modifying the general yurt into a more “yome” like design.  It doesn’t really seem effective to tie a bunch of bamboo into khanna, so we’re thinking of using dome style walls.   There’s a company that is already doing this in Austrailia, and their yurts are beautiful!  Check out http://www.bambooyurts.com.au/yurts.html for more information.

Our goal is to build a large bamboo yurt (maybe 24 feet in diameter… this is still up to the wonders of the universe).  Hopefully this will be our home or a large yoga space.  We’re still tossing around ideas, but we’ll blog again when we start making progress! Keep your fingers crossed!

What a dreamy yurt!

For more pictures of Yomes, check out another local company, Red Sky Shelters…. the home of the Yome!

At Laurel Nest Yurts, we pride ourselves on helping people get into yurts… one of our past customers referred his friend to us, and he had a blast building most parts of his yurt.  He built the entire frame and then came and spent a weekend with us.  We made some measurements, and together Hal and Chris sewed the yurt.  Below is a testimonial Chris wrote, along with some pictures of his  yurt.  

“I started to build my own Yurt in 2005. Five years later I had it nearly done except for the cover. I was only

able to work on it a couple of hours a month and I spent the last two years fiddling with the cover – trying to

learn to sew and trying out different fabrics. When I heard about the launch of Laurel Nest Yurts my anxiety

melted away since I knew they would be the folks who can help me finish my project. I had passed through Laurel

Nest back in 2006 on my way to a winter hike trip and met Hal and Asia on one cold 9 degree winter evening. I

contacted them and explained my troubles and we scheduled a time to work on a cover. I loaded up and headed to

Laurel Nest! We had a great time working through the custom design. Hal had a solid process for determining

size, shapes, cuts, and seams and in two days we had a great looking cover with four windows. I learned a lot

about making Yurt covers which is great, but I don’t know if I’ll ever try it again by myself since Laurel Nest

Yurts is here to help. Staying at Laurel Nest and enjoying the fellowhip of Hal, Asia, and their collegues and

friends not only helped me on my project, it gave me new focus on what is really important in life.

I’m so exicted to have this yurt completed and Laurel Nest Yurts made it all possible.”

Thanks Chris for bringing your prjoect to us!!  Your yurt is beautiful!

People are always asking me if I have any tips or insights about yurt living. Well I definitely do, but I always wonder, what are they interested in knowing about? So I’ll just touch on a few, and keep this fun!

Yurtin' in the winter!

First of all, my favorite thing about yurt living is the sound. It’s just like camping. I love to hear the birds and squirrels scurry about. When it’s raining, the sound of raindrops can be louder than a conversation. I once had a friend spend the night, and didn’t sleep a wink because it poured rain all night.  I think it’s like a sweet lullaby…

Just as it’s nice to hear all the sounds, people can hear you. So if your mother-in-law is spending the night next door (20 ft away) you may want to keep the noises (ahem) down.

The big question people always worry about is whether or not we stay warm in the winter. Since yurts were desinged in Mongolia where its freezing for long stretches oftime, they are easy to warm up. However, keep in mind that yurts are glamorous tents and so their temperature changes with the outside temperature.

A woodstove makes nice heat in a yurt!

When you heat the yurt, it warms up fast with the insulation, but it does not hold the heat for long periods of time. So consider the large volume of space for the square footage. Think of all the space above you that gets heated, and possibly consider building a loft.

We choose to heat our yurt with propane. That’s only because we don’t stay in it all day, we’re in and out, and find keeping a fire hot all day is not efficient energy use. We have a customer who loves infrared heat. Many of our customers choose wood stoves. These are all good options, it really depends what your needs are.

The last big concern I hear over and over is about going to the bathroom. There are several options here, and they range from quite luxurious to quite primitive. You can always choose to get running water and install a septic system. We prefer more “environmental” choices though. We use composting toilets, and have also seen people use outhouses and traditional poop and bury systems. Whatever method you choose, shit happens!

Outhouses are one solution to bathrooms...

As you consider your living needs, please realise that you can live it up or down as much as you want. One of our customers in Tennessee is getting ready to live the most incredibly sustainable life, with goats and solar power, and asked me if she should down size her shoe collection. My response: absolutely not! Let’s build a custom shoe rack. Why should we give up all our luxuries? Let’s glamp in style in a Laurel Nest Yurt!!

Over the last year, we have been recommending that people paint their yurts.  We painted the model yurt outside our studio, and it has protected the cover and made it look very nice.  We painted the interior and exterior faces of the cover, sealing the fabric inside the paint, and we believe it is much stronger and more durable.

The base coat is painted on this roof cover.

One of our goals as a yurt manufacturer is to offer sustainable and natural solutions.

Earthpaint is safe for the whole family!

Earthpaint is a local Asheville paint company that makes non-toxic, natural finish products that are as good as, or better than conventionally made paint and wood finish products.

Earthpaint was founded by Tom Rioux, a professional painter for 25 years. Tom was poisoned by the paints and wood finish he was told were safe. He narrowly survived. This is the basis for Earthpaint’s deep, life affirming commitment to make strong, safe paint and wood finish.

In addition to using Earthpaint, we recommend using ceramic-acrylic microspheres.  This will add insulating value to your yurt.  We created an “Earthtech” paint mixes the microspheres into the Earthpaint.  Visit our online store for more information!

Yesterday morning, a couple who own a bed and breakfast in Texas dropped by to look at our yurts.  They were excited about our yurts and also about sustainable building.  Their bed and breakfast is “green”, and they have a goal of building several structures on their 11 acre plot that involve green building techniques.  One of the insulation ideas they shared with me is papercrete. I had never heard of it, but papercrete is an ancient and modernized insulation.  It’s an exciting idea, to create your own environmentally friendly, sound proof, and inexpensive home with yesterday’s newspaper, and today’s junk mail!  

Every month millions of tons of refuse enter our landfills. A lot of it is not salvageable. But, for office paper, magazines, light cardboard, junk mail and newspapers Papercrete offers the perfect solution, by removing tons of waste paper from the ever-growing piles, while providing useful shelter material. Papercrete is a recently developed construction material which consists of re-pulped paper fiber with Portland cement or clay and/or other soil added. First patented in 1928, it has been revived since the 1980s.  Adding the cement makes the product less “green”, but the relatively small amount of cement is possibly a reasonable trade off for what papercrete can offer.

Some of the qualities of papercrete as a building material include:

• Highly insulating (about R-2 1/2 per inch)

• Involves little cost to start. The materials are claimed to be cheap or free and widely available.
  

• Good shear strength as a block.  Lateral load involves sideways force – the wind load on the entire area of an outside wall for example. Because papercrete walls are usually a minimum of twelve inches thick, and usually pinned with rebar, they may be strong laterally.

• Machinery suitable for small-scale construction is simple to design and construct.
  

• When properly mixed and dried, the papercrete wall can be left exposed to the elements. In its natural state, it is a grey, fibrous-looking wall. For a more conventional look, stucco can be applied directly to it.

• Does not support flames.  The more cement and mineral material that is added to the mix, the more fireproof it becomes.

• Resists rodent and bug infestation

• Holds screws without cracking

As I read about papercrete online and learned some of the properties, I was excited at using “trash” for new home building.  Many people approach us who want to live in a yurt while they build they home. Some of them like the yurt so much, they decide it is their dream home.  Others are researching how to build “green” and papercrete is one interesting option. 

For those of you who want to see how it’s done: check out this YouTube Video!  How To Make Paper Crete From a Tow Mixer

Thank you to these websites that provided me with information and photos:

http://www.greenhomebuilding.com/papercrete.htm

http://makepapercrete.com

http://earthbagbuilding.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papercrete

http://www.livinginpaper.com/mixes.htm

Many people ask us if mold is an issue in a yurt.  We live in the mountains of North Carolina, and our lovely yurts are in the middle of a temperate rain forest.

As with any structure in a climate with lots of humidity, it is important to build with good ventilation in mind.

We have some good solutions for ventilation- the skylight dome at the top of the yurt can open and pulls warm air up and out and lets the cool air from outside come in.  You can also leave your windows open, put up a ceiling fan, use screen doors, put in additional doors, and just keep a good air flow in your yurt.

Washing the yurt and keeping it clean will keep mold out.  If you have a lot of moisture, you should keep your fan running at all times.  Some people choose to run a dehumidifier or an air conditioner.  Climate control is typically used in standard homes to keep mold out, and is an option in yurts.  Personally, I prefer a nice fan.

Regular maintenance will help your yurt stay mold free!

If you do use a good fan, you probably will only need to do a general cleaning in your yurt and mold should not be a problem.  However, if mold ever is a problem, there are some natural ways to clean.  I have used lemon juice, lime juice, or vinegar for wiping off mold, and then laundry detergent for killing the spores.  The detergent is diluted in water, and then I use it as a rinse.  All-natural health cleaning products can be used to eliminate mold and mildew as effectively as more traditional products, but without leaving harsh additives and dangerous particles behind.

I hope this helps, and feel free to call us if you are concerned about mold in a moist climate like ours!!  With proper maintenance and good ventilation, mold won’t bother you and you’ll love that yurt of yours!

Below is a list from an article I found online about natural cleaning options… (the link follows the list).

Tea Tree Oil

Tea tree oil is one of the best antifungal and antibacterial remedies available. In addition to its ability to treat fungal infections such as athlete’s foot, tea tree oil can be added to a mixture of vinegar and water as an effective cleaner for mold and mildew.

Grapefruit Seed Extract

Grapefruit seed extract can be used to cut and kill mold and mildew. It can be used topically as an odorless treatment.

White Vinegar

Vinegar is the most versatile natural product. It is effective as a mold and mildew cleaner, as well as a grease cutter and stain remover.

Hydrogen Peroxide

Hydrogen peroxide is effective for treating mold and mildew when mixed into a paste along with borax and lemon juice.

Regular Maintenance

In addition to regular cleaning, mold and mildew can only be prevented by ensuring that areas prone to dampness are left to dry. Both mold and mildew grow in extremely moist areas. Clean these areas regularly and keep them dry.

Read more: About Natural Cleaning Products for Mildew | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/facts_4869042_natural-cleaning-products-mildew.html#ixzz0w89X9wc2

One of our goals at Laurel Nest Yurts is to have a sustainable business.  There are many ways to do this, and using biodiesel is just one aspect of how we are making progress.  Our Yurtmobiles all run on biodiesel from Blue Ridge Biofuels (check out http://www.blueridgebiofuels.com)

Biodiesel refers to a vegetable oil- or animal fat-based diesel fuel. Biodiesel is typically made by chemically reacting fats (like veggie oil or animal fat) with alcohol.

Biodiesel is meant to be used in standard diesel engines and is thus different from the waste and vegetable oils used to fuel converted diesel engines. Biodiesel can be used alone, or blended with petrodiesel.

Usually, we use B100 in the summer and then when its colder outside we go with B50 or B20.  One of our trucks had 2 tanks, one was the biodiesel tank and the other was a grease tank.  Some of our friends have traveled by bus just on grease cross country! It’s the way to go.

Biodiesel has different solvent properties than petrodiesel, and will degrade natural rubber gaskets and hoses in vehicles (mostly vehicles manufactured before 1992), although these tend to wear out naturally and most likely will have already been replaced with FKM, which is nonreactive to biodiesel. Biodiesel has been known to break down deposits of residue in the fuel lines where petrodiesel has been used. As a result, fuel filters may become clogged with particulates if a quick transition to pure biodiesel is made. It is recommended to change the fuel filters on engines and heaters shortly after first switching to a biodiesel blend.

I found some interesting links about making biodiesel more sustainable.

First off, there’s one idea to use it for cleaning up the oil spill. (see http://www.biodieselmagazine.com/article.jsp?article_id=4281 for the whole article)

Some of the same innovators who produce biodiesel are hoping their product could soon be used in the Gulf of Mexico, cleaning up the beaches and marshes ravaged by the BP oil spill.  Methyl esters, the chemical yielded in biodiesel production, can be formulated into a biobased solvent that is federally listed as a shoreline washing agent for oil spill clean-up.
The process starts with crews spraying the biosolvent from shallow draft boats onto oil-covered marsh vegetation or small beaches normally unreachable by land, said Randall von Wedel, founder and principal biochemist of CytoCulture International, a company that pioneered the method in the 1990s.

Randall von Wedel has been working tirelessly to get his biodiesel-based solvent, CytoSol, approved for use in cleaning up the oil-soaked marshes and beaches in the Gulf Coast. PHOTO: CYTOCULTURE INTERNATIONAL

After the biosolvent is applied, it is followed with a gentle “rain” of seawater to rinse the dissolved petroleum mixture off the plants and shoreline for recovery on the water, using small mechanical skimmers.

Another more sustainable source for biodiesel is algae. Check out this article for more information about how they made biodiesel from pond scum…  http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2007/01/making-biofuel-from-pond-scum-47237

For industrial production, the researchers are designing enormous growing troughs, wider than two trucks side by side, as long as a football field, and grouped by the thousands around processing plants. In this way, Sears says, algae could supply all the U.S. diesel power on a fraction of the nation’s farmland, just one percent of the 400 million hectares now under cultivation.
“Actually we wouldn’t have to convert any of our arable land,” [Sears] observes. “We could use desert land to grow this algae. It doesn’t require good soil. Just flat land, carbon dioxide and sunlight.”
Carbon dioxide helps algae grow fast and fat, so the team plans to siphon it from fossil fuel power plant exhaust, which will reduce greenhouse gas emissions. And Sears says there are other ways to get the gas. “It would actually start with biomass such as switch grass or wood, where in some countries are the only type of fuel that they have anyway. In that case, the grass, the trees, the wood is pulling the carbon dioxide out of the air, then we burn it as fuel and feed the carbon dioxide to the algae.”
He stresses that no carbon will be added to the atmosphere during all these energy conversion steps, making biofuel from algae is a truly carbon-neutral technology. “It’s essentially solar powered fuel.”
To conserve water, the growing troughs are sealed. The algae grows under a clear plastic lid that allows in plenty of sunlight, but keeps the water the plants are floating in from evaporating. “It is about 1,000 times more efficient to produce fuel from algae than it is from an irrigated crop,” Sears says. “There’s enough water even in the desert from natural rainfall to support this technology.”

How’s that for inspiring a sustainable, green energy?  There’s lots of articles online about making your own biodiesel from Waste Vegetable Oil and Algae… and the more of us that work towards a cleaner, greener earth, the better for all of us!

Thanks to the websites I used for the information! I pasted and paraphrased, and I encourage anyone who is interested to go to the links in this blog entry.

We just finished a project in Swannanoa, NC.  This yurt is a 24′ yurt that has solid walls, and is well insulated.  It’s right on a river, and it was so peaceful listening to the water as we worked.

We put 4 real windows and 2 doors in the yurt.  The yurt was painted with a Therma-insulated paint.  It was much like many of our other yurts, hand-crafted and the owner of the yurt participated in the building process!

We used the wind/ snow load kit as a frame for putting tongue and groove wooden walls.  2″ thick insulation went behind the wooden walls, in an effort to make the yurt have a higher r-value.

The view on the river was so beautiful, so we made it easy to relax in the yurt, and enjoy the water.  We connected 3 real windows and 2 doors as one panel, which made up about 25′, almost 1/3 the circumference of the yurt.  The owners chose to have all real windows, and no vinyl windows in this project.

There is lots of benefits to using real windows.  The biggest one is that you can open them from the inside.  We recommend them when you are building your deck on a steep hill, and you will have challenges in opening your windows from the outside.  Some people have done this for yurts placed on a 2nd story, and built a usable space underneath.  People who want all natural materials choose to have yurts with glass windows as well.  We love them, they add elegance to the yurt!